Within the prior art there exists a multitude of fasteners or connectors for connecting panels and the like together U S. Pat. No. 4,653,970 by Ballantyne is such a fastener used for connecting panels in a face-to-face orientation. Another example of a fastening device is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,278 wherein a very complex bolt fastening arrangement is provided for connecting detachable panels such as furniture panels. However when connecting panels together by their edges as in an office system, neither of the aforementioned fasteners will serve to adequately solve the problem. Great Britain patent application 2,106,211 published on Apr. 7, 1983 by Iddon provides a fastener as illustrated in FIG. 1 having portions at the ends thereof for simultaneous engagement with the panels being connected wherein upon rotation of the fastener when engaged with the panels the panels will simultaneously move relative to one another. A lever portion 13 is provided in the preferred embodiment of the invention in order to provide the rotation of the fastener when as stated at line 56 of column 1 "rotation of the lever to draw the panels together can allow the lever to move into a gap between the panels caused by the thickness of a sealant strip on the shape of the panels."
Nowhere within the prior art is there found a connector which allows for the independent locking of each fastener within its respective panel while aligning the remaining fastener with the opening within which it will lock when engaging the fastener.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide improvements to connectors and fasteners for furniture systems wherein the connector may be used to connect two panels together in a simple but very effective manner.
It is a further object of this invention to permit independent fastening of the connector to each of the panels upon rotation of the connector thus allowing for ease of assembly without it being necessary to engage both panels simultaneously.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an economical fastener which may be fabricated from thermoplastic materials.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a connector which will readily engage existing channel portions disposed within a furniture system or panel system without the need to substantially alter the channels of the panel system.
Further and other objects of the invention will become apparent to the man skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention and the more detail description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.